Come Back
by tbjanet
Summary: An 'Angie centric' story.  Angie thinks back to when her father first disappeared ... but then again, she has Derek now, right?  A weird little drabble ... only a bit over 1000 words.  Inspired by a sad Cantopop song from Stephy Tang. Disclaimer: Not mine


Author's Note:  
This is my first fanfic … so … _don't_ be easy on me. Well ok, just review. I love reviews. Hurray reviews:D

With that aside, this Trauma Center drabble was inspired by a Chinese song I was listening to called "Black and White Photos" by Stephy Tang. I loosely translated the chorus of the song, but I don't even completely understand parts of it, so it's a poorly done job. The song lyrics were written by Stephy Tang herself, talking about how she never really knew her father because her parents separated when she was really young and she lived with her mother all her life … the lyrics line up so well with Angie's story, except a few bits here and there. After I wrote this, I feel like the characters are a bit OOC, but since this story is more of a weird drabble anyway ...

---

**Come Back**

"_Pretending to be happy and innocent  
__You left me when I was still so young  
__So much time has passed already  
__At first without your comfort or care  
__I waited every day as if you would come back  
__But now, only a black and white photo remains  
__To reveal that you were once that man in our family …"_

_-Black and White Photo by Stephy Tang [Translated by TBJ for the purposes of this fic_

---

It was late. The sky was pitch black, and so was the apartment that Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson – or rather, Angie Stiles – shared.

Angie flicked on the light switch, illuminating the dark lonely house. Strangely, without Derek, the apartment felt so deserted. The feeling was chilling, shaking her down to her core. Angie shuddered, putting the thought out of her mind. She walked into her room slowly, the room she now shared with Derek. She turned on the lights here as well, and sat down on the bed, tossing aside her handbag.

Derek and Angie had just finished their night shift at Caduceus. It was almost midnight by now. Derek had driven Angie home first, and told her that he wanted to get something before returning home. He would be back soon.

Angie simply sat there, reminiscing. It was their first wedding anniversary tomorrow. She picked up a photo album from the bedside table. She was just browsing through that yesterday, thinking of all the memories they had together. She flipped through it again, having nothing to do.

Turning to the next page, she saw a photo that she didn't usually look at. A photo of her family. This was an old faded color picture. She was just a baby back then, small enough to be cradled by her mother. Her father stood next to her. The photo brought back old memories, much too old memories …

_--- _

"_Mom, when is Dad coming home?" a little Angie asked, barely five years old. Dad usually was home by now. He was always home to eat dinner really quickly, and then he went back to his study to work. But it was two hours ago, almost three, since Angie ate her dinner. Shouldn't Dad be home by now?_

"_I don't know, Angie," her Mom replied, her expression unreadable, "Your Dad disappeared. He might never be back, love." _

"_Mom!" Angie said with a laugh, a child's innocence shielding her from reality, "Of course Dad will be back. He'll come home soon, right?" _

_Her Mom only shook her head. _

"_You know, dearie, it's pretty late. Why don't you go to sleep?" her Mom asked, trying to change the subject. She did have a point – it was already nine o'clock. _

"_No, Mom," Angie said pleadingly, "Can I please wait for Dad to come home first? I want to show him what I got on my spelling test …"_

_Her Mom turned away, avoiding Angie's eyes. _

_---_

Angie smiled a strangely sad smile. She remembered what she used to do when she was little. When her father first disappeared, she would always sit on the big couch, her arms wrapped around her teddy bear, waiting for him to come home. She would then always fall asleep on the couch and wake up next morning, just to be disappointed again. Her Dad never came home.

She knew that her actions, her stubbornness, and her childishness just made her mother more upset. She knew that, but she still wanted to wait for her father. Her Dad would come home. Eventually.

But he never did. And he never will come home. He would spend the rest of his life atoning for his sins. But at least he was still alive.

_It's ok – I have Derek now_, Angie thought with a small smile. Yes, now she had Derek. Her mother was elated when she found out that she was getting married, and that her son-in-law was such a great guy. But that was a year ago. Time sure flew by – in less than three minutes, it would be their anniversary.

---

Derek whistled in an off-tune fashion as he strolled back to his car. He told Angie he was getting them a midnight snack, but he actually went to retrieve something from his mother's house. His mother was awake at this hour as usual – once your son was a world renowned doctor, you had all the rights in the world to retire and sleep at whatever hours you choose. His mother was watching a late night show when Derek came in, asking for the "gift".

Derek had gotten an anniversary gift for Angie. It was a diamond necklace, and it looked as beautiful as ever. It was simple in design – just three stones lined up vertically, backed with white gold. His mother had offered to hold on to it for him when he showed it to her. After all, there was nowhere at home to hide it anyway. Angie made it a promise to herself that she would clean the house every week until it was spotless, and she would have found out about necklace weeks before their anniversary.

Derek climbed into the car, placing the jewelry box in the passenger's seat next to him. The box settled next to the plastic bag with two Subway sandwiches inside – both of them had barely eaten dinner.

He started up the car and drove, wary of the dark roads. He didn't realize that a smart red racing car was speeding along without a care in the world …

CRASH.

Derek's glasses flew off somewhere. The sandwiches fell underneath the seat. The window next to the passenger's seat was completely gone – the glass of that window scattered around the car, inside the car, on the passenger's seat, embedded in his body – glass was everywhere. Blood was everywhere. The red racing car had slammed right into the side of the car.

The jewelry box was knocked away, now sitting in Derek's lap. The box was opened by the impact, and the diamonds glinted in the faint lights of the dark street.

---

It was 12:03AM. Angie sighed, wondering where in the world Derek was. He was only supposed to get some food. But she wasn't worried.

He would come back soon.

**-FIN-**

**--- **

A/N2: Just to tell you, Derek and Angie are married because I recently read TCGeek's _Keeping the Secret_, and I couldn't get the adorable idea out of my head. Ha. xD And as for Angie's mom somehow knowing something about Blackwell's disappearance ... this idea was inspired by PreseatheKitsune's _The Reason_.

Also, if people like this story well enough, then I might be tempted to add in a bonus ending. I was only inspired to write this much, but I feel so bad for Angie after developing this, so I feel like I might be able to flesh this out a little more. Of course, the one-shot reads fine as it is, but still. It really depends on you, the readers, though. So …

If I were to add a bonus ending, would you like to see:  
(a) A miracle ending where Derek lives and everything (well almost) is happy?  
(b) A realistic ending where Derek dies, Angie eventually finds out, and there's a funeral?  
(c) BOTH endings, so that you readers can read either one at your choosing?  
(d) No bonus ending – it's better off with this cliffhanger ending?  
(e) You just don't care anyway, so why bother?

Please refrain from being too nice in the reviews; I want to know where I can improve on :D Thanks for reading, people!

-TBJ


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